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| Open AccessInequalities in healthcare use during the COVID-19 pandemic
An indirect impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was a decline in healthcare utilisation for other conditions. Here, the authors quantify this decline in the Netherlands and show that impacts were greater for individuals with lower household income, females, older people, and those with a migrant background.
- Arun Frey
- , Andrea M. Tilstra
- & Mark D. Verhagen
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| Open AccessReputations for treatment of outgroup members can prevent the emergence of political segregation in cooperative networks
Social networks often segregate based on political identities. We show that such segregation is reduced when people know how others behave towards those from their outgroup and ingroup
- Brent Simpson
- , Bradley Montgomery
- & David Melamed
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| Open AccessSurvey of open science practices and attitudes in the social sciences
Open science practices are becoming more common in the social sciences, but there is limited data on their popularity and prevalence. Here, using survey data, the authors provide evidence that levels of adoption are relatively high and underestimated by many in the field.
- Joel Ferguson
- , Rebecca Littman
- & John-Henry Pezzuto
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| Open AccessUniversal patterns in egocentric communication networks
Personal communication networks through mobile phones and online platforms can be characterized by patterns of tie strengths. The authors propose a model to explain driving mechanisms of emerging tie strength heterogeneity in social networks, observing similarity of patterns across various datasets.
- Gerardo Iñiguez
- , Sara Heydari
- & Jari Saramäki
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| Open AccessHuman cooperation in changing groups in a large-scale public goods game
Little is known about the dynamics of human cooperation in groups with changing compositions. Using data from a large-scale and long-term online public goods game, this study shows how group changes are associated with temporarily lower cooperation.
- Kasper Otten
- , Ulrich J. Frey
- & Naomi Ellemers
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| Open AccessQuantifying ethnic segregation in cities through random walks
Socioeconomic segregation is one of the main factors behind large-scale inequalities in urban areas and its characterisation remains challenging. The authors propose a family of non-parametric measures to quantify spatial heterogeneity through diffusion, and show how this relates to segregation and deprivation
- Sandro Sousa
- & Vincenzo Nicosia
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| Open AccessSocial inequalities in climate change-attributed impacts of Hurricane Harvey
New study shows that up to 50% of properties flooded after hurricane Harvey flooded because of climate change, with low-income and Latina/x/o neighborhoods experiencing higher climate change-attributed impacts.
- Kevin T. Smiley
- , Ilan Noy
- & Oliver E. J. Wing
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| Open AccessA meritocratic network formation model for the rise of social media influencers
Dynamical development process of various social network platforms shows emergence and transformation of user communities. The authors model social network formation processes considering the meritocratic perspective, where users make their decisions based on the user-generated content.
- Nicolò Pagan
- , Wenjun Mei
- & Florian Dörfler
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| Open AccessThe reduction of race and gender bias in clinical treatment recommendations using clinician peer networks in an experimental setting
Race and gender bias in healthcare contribute to health disparities. Here the authors show in an experimental setting that structured information sharing networks among clinicians can reduce race and gender bias in medical decisions.
- Damon Centola
- , Douglas Guilbeault
- & Jingwen Zhang
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| Open AccessEvidence from a long-term experiment that collective risks change social norms and promote cooperation
Large-scale cooperation is needed to reduce existential risks like those posed by pandemics and climate change. Here the authors demonstrate that social norms can emerge and sustain cooperation in situations of collective risk and that the level of risk influences the strength of the norms.
- Aron Szekely
- , Francesca Lipari
- & Giulia Andrighetto
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| Open AccessTopological measures for identifying and predicting the spread of complex contagions
Understanding of complex contagions is crucial for explaining diffusion processes in networks. Guilbeault and Centola introduce topological mechanisms and measures to elucidate spreading dynamics and identify the most influential nodes in social, epidemic and economic networks.
- Douglas Guilbeault
- & Damon Centola
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| Open AccessTriadic embeddedness structure in family networks predicts mobile communication response to a sudden natural disaster
Here, the authors use mobile telecom data to study communication in family networks after a natural disaster, and find that the structural configuration of families’ social tie sharing predicted their post-disaster communications dynamics.
- Jayson S. Jia
- , Yiwei Li
- & Jianmin Jia
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| Open AccessThe widespread and unjust drinking water and clean water crisis in the United States
Proper water and sanitation access remains an issue for many in the United States. Here the authors estimate and map the full scope of water hardship, including both incomplete plumbing and water quality across the country.
- J. Tom Mueller
- & Stephen Gasteyer
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| Open AccessExperimental evidence for scale-induced category convergence across populations
Category systems exhibit striking agreement across many cultures, yet paradoxically individuals exhibit large variation in the categorization of novel stimuli. Here the authors show that critical mass dynamics explain the convergence of independent populations on shared category systems.
- Douglas Guilbeault
- , Andrea Baronchelli
- & Damon Centola
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| Open AccessSelf-reliance crowds out group cooperation and increases wealth inequality
Cooperation among humans is threatened by the free-rider problem. Here the authors identify another challenge to human cooperation: self-reliance, the ability to solve shared problems individually. The experiment reveals that self-reliance crowds out cooperation and increases wealth inequality.
- Jörg Gross
- , Sonja Veistola
- & Eric Van Dijk
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| Open AccessA population-based cohort study of socio-demographic risk factors for COVID-19 deaths in Sweden
Better understanding of who is at highest risk of death from COVID-19 is important for public health planning. Here, the authors demonstrate an unequal mortality burden associated with socially disadvantaged groups in Sweden.
- Sven Drefahl
- , Matthew Wallace
- & Gunnar Andersson
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| Open AccessGame theoretical inference of human behavior in social networks
Based on a strategic network formation model, the authors develop game-theoretical and statistical methods to infer individuals’ incentives in complex social networks, and validate their findings in real-world, historical data sets.
- Nicolò Pagan
- & Florian Dörfler
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| Open AccessClustering knowledge and dispersing abilities enhances collective problem solving in a network
Using agent-based models of a problem-solving task in a network, the authors show that clustering people of similar knowledge maintains solution diversity and increases long run system collective performance. Clustering those with similar abilities, however, lowers solution diversity and performance.
- Charles J. Gomez
- & David M. J. Lazer
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| Open AccessStructural balance emerges and explains performance in risky decision-making
How do socially polarized systems change and how does a change in polarization relate to performance? Using instant messaging data and performance records from day traders, the authors find that certain relations are prone to balance and that balance is associated with better trading decisions.
- Omid Askarisichani
- , Jacqueline Ng Lane
- & Brian Uzzi
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| Open AccessUrbanity and the dynamics of language shift in Galicia
In areas with two or more spoken languages, linguistic shift may occur as speakers of one language switch to the other. Here, the authors show that linguistic shift is faster in rural compared to urban regions of Galicia, a bilingual community in Spain, due to the competition of internal complexity and network relevance.
- Mariamo Mussa Juane
- , Luis F. Seoane
- & Jorge Mira
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| Open AccessBridge ties bind collective memories
Social groups form collective memories, but the temporal dynamics of this process are unclear. Here, the authors show that when early conversations involve individuals that bridge across clusters of a social network, the network reaches higher mnemonic convergence compared to when early conversations occur within clusters.
- Ida Momennejad
- , Ajua Duker
- & Alin Coman
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| Open AccessSocial networks and risk of delayed hospital arrival after acute stroke
Rapid arrival to hospital after stroke is critical for patients to receive effective treatment. Here, the authors examine how stroke patients’ social network structure relates to stroke arrival time, and show that small and close-knit personal networks predict delayed arrival.
- Amar Dhand
- , Douglas Luke
- & Jin-Moo Lee
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| Open AccessAn interpretable approach for social network formation among heterogeneous agents
Complex networks can be a useful tool to investigate problems in social science. Here the authors use game theory to establish a network model and then use a machine learning approach to characterize the role of nodes within a social network.
- Yuan Yuan
- , Ahmad Alabdulkareem
- & Alex ‘Sandy’ Pentland
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| Open AccessExercise contagion in a global social network
Some argue that health-related behaviours, such as obesity, are contagious, but empirical evidence of health contagion remains inconclusive. Here, using a large scale quasi-experiment in a global network of runners, Aral and Nicolaides show that this type of contagion exists in fitness behaviours.
- Sinan Aral
- & Christos Nicolaides